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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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23 



INDIA AND 
SOUTHERN ASIA 



By 
BISHOP JAMES M. THOBURN, D. D, 




CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 






IuIrary of CONaRESsI 
Two Copies Received 

MAH 16 1907 

<r— Copyn&'htJLntry 
GLASS A XXC, NO. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Jennings & Graham 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Pagb 

I. IntroductorV, -^ - - 5 

II. The Region Called ^^ India/' - lo 

III. The Empire, - - ^ 17 

IV. The People, - - - - 26 
V. The Religions, - - - 38 

VI. Missionary Work, - - - 56 

VII. Methodist Missions in India, 71 

VIII. Christian India, - - -SB 



India and Southern Asia 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory. 

The; closing decade of the fifteenth cen- 
tury was marked by two events of surpass- 
ing importance to the human race. The 
first was the discovery of America by Co- 
lumbus, and the second the discovery of 
the passage around the Cape of Good Hope 
by Vasco de Gama. The first has attracted 
the greater attention, especially among the 
new nations which have grown up in Amer- 
ica; but it may be doubted whether in its 
ultimate effects upon the whole human race 
the achievement of Columbus was more im- 
portant than the discovery of his Portu- 
guese rival. The one brought the exist- 
ence of two great continents to the knowl- 
edge of Europe, while the other opened a 

5 



6 India and Southern Asia. 

highway to a region as vast in extent as 
the two Americas combined, and contain- 
ing a population larger than that of all the 
rest of the world. India had been known as 
a distant land of semi-fable, China as a still 
more remote land of mystery, while Japan 
had not given the Western world a passing 
thought; but all this was changed when 
Europe learned that the sea offered a free 
passage to every adventurer who wished 
to visit those distant shores, and soon rival 
nations were hastening to the vast regions 
which had thus been opened to them as a 
field of commerce and conquest. 

The opening of the sixteenth century was 
a little too early for enlightened missionary 
work, but the Roman Catholic leaders of 
that period were quick to perceive that 
India presented such a field for the exten- 
sion of the Pope's authority as had never 
been seen before. They lost no time in pre- 
paring to enter what seemed to them a 
providential inheritance, and under the lead- 
ership of the illustrious Xavier a work of 
vast proportions was undertaken, but this 
movement was not very successful. The 
governments of the day also took an inter- 



Introductory. 7 

est in the enterprise, but their efforts all 
ended in failure, and seemed only to demon- 
strate the fact that neither civil nor mili- 
tary powers could be successfully entrusted 
with spiritual functions. During the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries some prog- 
ress was made, chiefly through the agency 
of good men who had gone out to India 
as chaplains, but the real beginning of the 
modern missionary movement dates from 
the noted call of William_ Carey, — a call 
from God which was direct and specific, 
and which was followed by similar calls 
on both sides of the globe, until in the full- 
ness of time the Christian Churches of Eu- 
rope and America became fully and defi- 
nitely committed to this vast enterprise, and 
their combined efforts became known as 
one of the greatest movements of modern 
times. Every important Church is now 
comimitted to this sacred cause, so that 
every year the fields which are cultivated 
expand and the prospects which open to 
the view become more hopeful and inviting. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church was 
somewhat late in entering the foreign field, 
chiefly because of the overwhelming dc- 



8 India and Southern Asia. 

mand of the constantly growing work along 
the frontiers in the home-land, but when a 
beginning in India was at last made in 1857, 
God did not fail to give special tokens of 
approval to this new movement, and it rap- 
idly gained a strong hold upon the affec- 
tions and interest of the whole Methodist 
community in the United States. God 
richly blessed the efforts of His messengers 
to India, and very soon it was clearly per- 
ceived that this movement was adding to 
the general interest of the Church in other 
fields. In short, the effort to give the Gos- 
pel to the people of India led to inquiries 
concerning the needs of other portions of 
the vast non-Christian world, and thus 
helped forward the greater effort to which 
Christians of every name are summoned, — 
to make our earth "one great garden of our 
God." 

In the following brief pages no attempt 
is made to lay before the reader anything 
more than an exceedingly brief outline of 
the field which the Church is trying to oc- 
cupy, and of the work which is to be ac- 
complished. This work constitutes a well- 
defined task, and like every task to which 



Introductory. 9 

God summons His people, is perfectly feas- 
ible, and can be — and must be — crowned 
with complete success. The Church of the 
present day does not sufficiently appreciate 
either her opportunities or her responsibil- 
ities. Golden days are passing, and golden 
opportunities escaping our grasp, chiefly for 
the reason that our people do not under- 
stand the conditions of Christ's service, or 
the splendid victories which are within easy 
grasp of those who bear the name of the 
blessed Master, and follow in His victori- 
ous footsteps. 



CHAPTER II. 

The: Re:gion Cai.i.i:d "India." 

In speaking of India it has often been 
remarked that the region bearing that 
name is more like a continent than a single 
country. It has been likened to Europe, 
with Russia excluded from the map, and 
contains no less than 1,766,597 square 
miles of territory. Its soil is for the most 
part extremely fertile, and its productions 
include almost everything found between 
the Arctic Circle and the Equator. The 
great valley of the Ganges is as rich as 
that of the Nile, and is ten times as ex- 
tensive. From the Himalayas to the sea 
the river flows through a vast plain which 
has been cultivated as far back as history 
can be traced, without showing any signs 
of exhaustion, and which still yields a sup- 
port for a hundred million souls. Other 
portions of the country are equally fertile, 
and although an arid and almost desert 
10 



The Region Called '4ndla." 11 

region exists in a part of the Northwest, 
yet this is much more Hmited in extent 
than similar sections in the United States. 
On the whole India may be regarded as a 
goodly land, and one which must always 
be regarded as the home of one of the 
great divisions of the human race. 

A mistaken notion prevails in the outer 
world concerning the climate of India. 
Like all other climates, that of India is 
less than perfect, but as happens in all 
other parts of the world, many of the ail- 
ments of the people can be traced to other 
sources than its climate. The population 
is dense, the mass of it exceedingly poor, 
the ordinary dv/ellings small and unsani- 
tary, the food oftentimes insufficient, and 
the medical notions of the people as often 
hurtful as helpful to both those in health 
and the sufferers from sickness. Euro- 
peans can enjoy good enough health in 
India if they care sufficiently for the bless- 
ing to take a few simple precautions, and 
live as intelligent Christians ought to do 
in any and all parts of the world. Asiatic 
cholera originated in India, it is true, but 
scarlet fever and diphtheria did not, and 



12 India and Southern Asia. 

it is doubtful if either of these scourges 
has ever gained a lodgment in the empire. 

Many persons of the United States have 
in some way imbibed the notion that the 
chief food staple of the people of India is 
rice, but this too is a very great mistake. 
Rice is produced in immense quantities 
along the sea coast and in the large val- 
leys, but the chief food of the people taken 
as a whole is millet, of which there are 
several varieties. Millions of the people 
are too poor to eat rice. Maize of an in- 
ferior quality is grown and eaten to some 
extent by the poorer classes in certain sec- 
tions. Wheat is not only grown, but ex- 
ported in large quantities. Cotton is an 
Indian product, and it seems both prob- 
able and certain that it was in India that 
cotton fabrics were first produced. If 
Egypt excelled in weaving her fine linen, 
India can claim precedence in putting cot- 
ton goods on the markets of the world. 
It was the town of Calicut, in Southwest- 
ern India, that first gave the name "calico" 
to the cotton fabric which has become so 
well known throughout the world. 

Tea is grown high up among the Hima- 



The Region Called ^4ndia." 13 

laya Mountains, and also in the extreme 
South among the hills. Coffee is exported 
both East and West, and is also sent to 
Arabia, where it is mixed with the Arabian 
berry, and re-exported to Europe and 
America as the ''best Mocha coffee." In- 
digo was an important production of the 
country until the discovery of aniline dyes 
weakened and practically destroyed the 
commerce in that article. Sugar is a val- 
uable article of export, and India may 
claim the credit of having given the world 
both the product and the name which it 
bears. In short, India has a fair propor- 
tion of the good things of this life, and 
instead of being one of the beggar nations 
appealing to the outer world for help, she 
stands in the world's market-place with 
her wares, and is prepared to sell, buy, or 
exchange on terms which all the world 
must respect. If her markets were sud- 
denly to be closed, the whole civilized 
world would feel the shock, and all na- 
tions would be obliged to readjust them- 
selves to the new situation. 

The people of India differ in race char- 
acteristics, but have certain peculiarities 



14 India and Southern Asia. 

in common. They are known throughout 
the world as tenaciously attached to the 
caste system, by which the whole commu- 
nity is divided into separate castes or 
orders, ranking from the most highly priv- 
ileged to the lowest outcasts. This sys- 
tem is the source of much oppression, and 
makes it nearly impossible for the lower 
classes to rise in the social scale, or to 
enjoy the full exercise of those rights 
which belong in common to the whole hu- 
man race. The rules of caste also make 
it very difficult for any one to change the 
religion in which he is born, and of course 
stand directly in the way of missionary 
work. The invasion of the country by the 
Mohammedans many years ago gave a se- 
vere blow to the system of caste, but failed 
to destroy it, and it remains as a special 
duty of the Christian missionary to accom- 
plish this gigantic task. That the work 
will finally be accomplished no missionary 
who has studied the situation can for a 
single moment doubt. 

India is a rich country, but the mass of 
its people are wretchedly poor. The depth 
of poverty to which the masses have sunk 



The Region Called ^4ndia." 15 

is almost incredible, but their lot is not 
worse than that of all the non-Christian 
people on the globe. A very few people 
are moderately well-to-do, but millions 
upon millions live constantly upon the 
ragged edge of starvation. Able-bodied 
men are glad to obtain employment at 
from five to eight or ten cents a day. The 
missionary is sometimes tempted to despair 
of success when he considers the utterly 
helpless condition of the people among 
whom he labors, but he is a messenger of 
hope to the most lowly people of earth, 
and goes among them with a promise for 
the life which now is, as well as for that 
which is to come. The world will only 
be saved from its poverty when all its na- 
tions learn to obey God. 

The rivers of India are not among the 
longest in the world, but they pour an 
immense volume of water into the sea. 
The Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra are 
noble streams and serve the double purpose 
of promoting internal commerce, and pro- 
viding water for the vast system of irri- 
gating canals which the Government has 
been constructing during recent years. 



16 India and Southern Asia. 



i 



Visitors from Europe and America who 
are familiar with the use of railways and 
steamers for the purpose of commerce are 
slow to appreciate the fact that the Ganges 
carries a larger internal commerce on her 
bosom than does the Mississippi. The 
larger canals are also used for purposes 
of transportation of goods and grain and 
are of inestimable value to the people. 

On the whole the people of India may 
well be pardoned for regarding their coun- 
try as one of the most favored regions of 
the globe. If it were not an especially fa- 
vored land it would not be — and could 
not be — what it is, the home of nearly one- 
fifth of the human race. 



i 



CHAPTER III. 
Tut Empire. 

Many great kingdoms rose and fell in 
Indian history, but it was not until the 
reign of Akhbar in the sixteenth and sev- 
enteenth centuries that any one power 
gained such authority over all rivals as to 
become the predominant factor in the whole 
Indian peninsula. This noted monarch 
was truly a great man and before his death 
had become the most powerful ruler on the 
globe. Several of his successors did much 
to maintain the high position which he had 
won for the Moghul race, but the elements 
of weakness which seem in so many cases 
to have been inherent in the character of 
Oriental rulers soon appeared in succes- 
sive monarchs at Delhi and Agra — the 
great capitals of the Moghul era — and it 
was reserved for a new power, hailing from 
a small island in a distant sea, to unite 
firmly and permanently all the great sec- 

2 17 



18 India and Southern Asia. 

tions of the region known as ''India," and 
to estabHsh an empire such as the world 
had never seen before the dawn of the 
nineteenth century. 

The coming of the English to India 
was an extraordinary event. It was no 
part of any human plan, and was distant 
as the poles from any human intention. 
A few adventurers sought the distant 
shores of an almost unknown land for the 
purpose of trade, and took up a tempo- 
rary residence there without any thought 
of making a lengthy stay. Temporary ar- 
rangements were made, and the authority 
of local rulers was acknowledged with a 
respect which amounted to almost slavish 
submission. But the trade increased, the 
allurements of the situation began to be 
felt, the weakness of the local potentates 
was discovered, and thus in time the traders 
became soldiers ; battles were fought, the 
bubble of Oriental pov/er burst, and the 
adventurers saw before them a straight 
path leading to conquest, fabulous wealth, 
and almost unlimited power. 

The story need not be told at length. 
Suffice it to say that a commercial body 



The Empire. 19 

known as the "East India Company," was 
founded and organized, and by successive 
steps developed into a mighty Oriental em- 
pire, and in the fullness of time the present 
King-Emperor of England went out to 
India, and in the royal city of Delhi, on 
the first day of January, 1877, he proclaimed 
Queen Victoria as Empress of a region 
which might almost be said to embrace all 
Southern Asia. No such realm had been 
known in that part of Asia before, and only 
one other empire in the whole world can 
compare with this in either population or 
power to-day. Making allowance for the 
normal increase since the last official cen- 
sus was taken in 1900, the present popula- 
tion of the Indian Empire may be reck- 
oned at three hundred millions. China 
alone in all the world can compare with 
this empire in point of population, but 
to-day, in all the elements of political and 
military power, China is distinctly a sec- 
ond-rate nation, and can not claim a place 
above her rival in Southern Asia. ^ 

The people of India are not a con- 
quered people. The English never con- 
quered India. iVs has been said before, a 



20 India and Southern Asia. 

few English merchants entered the land as 
traders, and kept a few soldiers as local 
guards. The soldiers were employed merely 
for protection and to preserve order lo- 
cally, but in time it was discovered that 
Oriental troops could not stand against 
them. Then the work of expansion began, 
but in the main Indian soldiers were em- 
ployed against Indians, and in time In- 
dian princes were found fighting for the 
strangers, and thus by using the forces 
found in the land the power of the adven- 
turers steadily increased. District was 
added to district, and province to province 
until at last the whole vast region from 
Afghanistan to Siam was brought under 
the flag of England. The leaders from the 
first in this stupendous movement have 
been Englishmen, but more than three- 
fourths of the common soldiers have been 
children of the Indian soil. 

The question is often asked, "What 
would the result be if the Russians were to 
attempt to invade India? Could the Eng- 
lish put an army in the field which would 
be at all able to cope with the immense 
forces which the Russians could bring 



The Empire. 21 

down from Central Asia?" The Indian 
Government could assemble two hundred 
thousand European, and five hundred thou- 
sand Indian soldiers in the field on short 
notice, and with the tremendous bulwark 
which the vast Himalayas form on the 
Northwest frontier, the forces of the In- 
dian Empire would be able to hold the fa- 
mous passes through which Alexander 
marched long centuries ago, not only 
against the Russians, but against the 
world ! 

India, though subject to British control, 
is an empire in herself and is entitled to 
this distinction among the great powers of 
the world. If not independent, she is not 
subject to despotic control, and is endowed 
with many of the elements of self-govern- 
ment. If it be said that this privilege 
can be curtailed at any time, it is suf- 
ficient to reply that in the ordinary 
course of administration it seldom meets 
with a check from the home authorities. 
A supreme legislative body under the presi- 
dency of the Viceroy himself makes laws 
for the Empire, while similar bodies under 
the presidency of Governors and Lieuten- 



22 India and Southern Asia. 

ant-Governors legislate for sections of the 
Empire in which interests of a more local 
character require attention. Courts of law 
of every grade are provided to which every 
subject — even the lowest — can appeal. It 
is claimed by those capable of forming an 
opinion on the subject that the criminal 
code of India, drawn up by Lord Macau- 
lay, is the best code of its kind known in 
the world. Only those who are familiar 
with the conditions which prevail in Orien- 
tal nations can fully appreciate the amazing 
spectacle which this array of open and 
just courts must present, not only to the 
people of India, but to all the races of the 
Orient. 

The principle of religious toleration has 
been incorporated into law throughout the 
Empire, and forms a great bulwark to the 
missionary movements of the present era. 
The rule just mentioned necessarily in- 
cludes the toleration of polygamy and cer- 
tain other customs repugnant to Christian 
people, but those best acquainted with the 
situation are convinced that a sudden and 
violent attempt to reconstruct a society em- 
bracing three hundred million people, on a 



The Empire. 23 

model provided by the most advanced so- 
ciety in the world, would not only end in 
failure, but inevitably lead to disastrous 
confusion, and probably to much sufifering 
and bloodshed. The final readjustment of 
society on a Christian model is by no means 
yet complete in Christian lands, and wise 
men instinctively perceive that this is a 
work which must be left to the quiet prog- 
ress of Christian influences. 

From time to time both in England and 
America earnest reformers may be heard 
asking why the British Government does 
not abolish child marriage and polygamy, 
but such questions always indicate a very 
slight and superficial knowledge of the con- 
ditions which prevail in lands where Chris- 
tian laws and Christian influences do not 
prevail. Missionaries find it exceedingly 
difficult to deal with these subjects in the 
case of the few converts who gather around 
them, and the most powerful government 
in the world could not at a stroke change 
the ideals and usages of three hundred mil- 
lions of people, especially when both these 
ideals and usages have become identified 
and interwoven with their religious and 



24 India and Southern Asia. 

traditional usages. No government in the 
world — I repeat — could accomplish a task 
so vast and complicated. 

Will India ever become an independent 
power, and, as such, take her place among 
the nations of the earth? This question 
is sometimes asked by persons who are 
disposed to study present conditions, but 
the subject is — and for many years must 
be — more speculative than practical. When 
all conditions are fully ripe events some- 
times move with startling rapidity, but at 
the present time only a few of the condi- 
tions required for a change are existent. 
The people are fettered by caste, separated 
by discordant religious beliefs, aliens to 
one another in race, and without leader- 
ship, either military or civil. It will be 
time enough to discuss a question of this 
kind when the millions of the Empire shall 
have all become Christians, and when the 
nations of the earth shall have learned an- 
other method of settling differences than 
in the arena of the battlefield. For the 
present it is sufficient to know that for 
many long years to come the bond which 
united India to the British people must 
remain unbroken. 



The Empire. 25 

The boundaries of India are more ex- 
tended at the present time than they have 
ever been before, while the ^'spheres of in- 
fluence" beyond the actual boundary lines 
are also extended far beyond any similar 
regions in past times. The phrase "spheres 
of influence'' is understood to mean that 
the Indian Government will not tolerate 
interference on the part of any foreign 
power in the affairs of the regions so 
designated. Among the tracts so consid- 
ered at the present time may be included 
the whole of the eastern shore line of 
Asia, with parts of Central Asia and Tibet 
on the North. The whole of the Malay 
Peninsula, although it has not been an- 
nexed, is practically subject to orders from 
the Straits Government at Singapore, while 
Siam is carefully watched and parts of 
its territory protected from French en- 
croachment. India is also becoming in- 
terested in East Africa, where large num- 
bers of her people are now settling, and 
where in time the Empire may possibly 
acquire a permanent foothold. 



3 



CHAPTER IV. 
Tut F^OFht. 

So i^AR as the people of India are con- 
cerned, the situation is not entirely unlike 
that in Europe. The people at large have 
certain points of resemblance which they 
hold in common, and by which they could 
be easily distinguished from the inhabitants 
of other parts of the globe, and yet among 
themselves they differ widely in matters 
of dress, language, and religion. In com- 
plexion all may be classed among the dark 
races, and yet in this respect too they differ 
widely; some being very dark and others 
comparatively fair. 

Their origin is hidden in obscurity, save 
that most of them seem to have entered 
the country from the passes along the 
Northwest frontier. Tradition points un- 
mistakably in this direction, and language 
also furnishes a clue which is generally 
accepted as conclusive, especially in regard 
26 



The People. 27 

to those sections of the population belong- 
ing to the great Aryan family of mankind. 
It is generally conceded that the races 
known as Aryan and Dravidian entered 
the country by the well-known passes men- 
tioned above, while other less prominent 
races, known by the general name of Ko- 
larians, are supposed to have entered from 
the Northeast. However this whole sub- 
ject is clouded in more or less obscurity. 
As a matter of fact we find seven distinct 
peoples whose languages show a marked 
affinity to the Germanic tongues of Eu- 
rope, and hence the term ''IndiorGermanic" 
is now accepted by the best authorities on 
subjects pertaining to the civilized lan- 
guages. The people who are accepted as 
belonging to the Aryan division, are for 
the most part of a lighter complexion than 
the Dravidians and others, and no doubt 
entered the country at a later era than 
these darker peoples. It is generally ac- 
cepted as certain that at the advent of the 
newcomers the people who had preceded 
them were driven southward and eastward 
by slow degrees, and finally became settled 
in those parts of the country where they 



28 India and Southern Asia. 

are now found. Thus invasion followed 
invasion, each family of strangers naturally 
driving their opponents before them, so 
that the late-arriving Aryans got posses- 
sion of the northern portions of the coun- 
try where they were found by the British, 
and which they still occupy. The Dravid- 
ians were driven southward by the Aryans 
and are now to be found in the southern 
part of the country, but as this general 
movement was gradual and by different 
routes distinct nationalities took shape and 
formed new languages and varieties of 
people. 

The civilization of India at an early pe- 
riod assumed a distinct type of its own. 
Owing to the situation in which the people 
were placed, various divisions naturally 
were created, and these in time assumed 
the character of separate nations. The 
chief divisions or peoples belonging to the 
Aryan family are the Punjabi, Hindi (or 
Hmdustani), Bengali, Oriya, Maharati, 
Gujarati, and Sindhi. The Dravidian peo- 
ples are represented by the Tamil, Telugu, 
Kanarese, and Malayan languages. The 
Kolarians are a much weaker people, and 



The People. 29 

are not represented by any strong national 
body. But in addition to all these more 
important peoples, a large number of minor 
tribes are to be found in the less civilize^ 
portions of the country, including many 
wandering clans who have developed sep- 
arate languages and customs. The relig- 
ion of these more primitive people, of 
course, is of a most primitive type. Lit- 
tle is known of their origin, and it would be 
useless to attempt to trace their movements 
beyond one or two of the latest genera- 
tions. 

Of the people of India as a whole, al- 
though it may be said that as a rule they 
bear the reputation of not being very war- 
like, they are less lacking in courage and 
independence of character than would be 
apparent at first glance to a stranger. A 
hundred times in their past history they 
have shown an aptitude for war second to 
that of scarcely any race on the globe. 
Even since the establishment of English 
rule in the country, they have time and 
again furnished great armies of brave and 
effective soldiers, sometimes fighting 
against the foreign powers, and on other 



\ 



30 India and Southern Asia. 

occasions fighting in its ranks. As a rule, 
however, they live in quietness in their 
simple villages, and are inoffensive when 
not molested or unjustly treated. The civ- 
ilization of India is somewhat peculiar in 
that it seems to remain stationary. It 
neither advances nor declines. The simple 
farming implements now in use are not 
better than those employed by their an- 
cestors one or two thousand years ago, — 
indeed in many cases they are identically 
the same. It is the same with the Chi- 
nese, and it might be added, is the char- 
acteristic of the whole non-Christian world. 
This inability to change, even in small par- 
ticulars, never fails to impress the stranger 
arriving in India as a most remarkable 
trait. The enterprise of the human race 
is confined to the nations bearing the Chris- 
tian name, or to those who by their pecu- 
liar circumstances have been brought into 
close contact with various Christian insti- 
tutions. 

The people of India are very poor. 
This remark also can be applied to all the 
nations outside the Christian pale. The 
word *'poor'' in this connection should be 



I 



The People. 31 

understood in a very broad sense. They 
are not only poor, but extremely destitute 
of nearly all the comforts of life with which 
Europeans and Americans are familiar. 
The average income of a laboring man in 
good health and of normal strength does 
not exceed the sum of $25 a year! This 
reference is, of course, to unskilled labor, 
but artisans earn correspondingly low 
wages. The simple food of the people is, 
of course, very cheap; but in circum- 
stances even of comparative comfort the 
workingman can earn barely enough to 
afford two frugal meals a day, and often- 
times only a single one. In the mild cli- 
mate of the country, of course, clothing 
need not cost much, and the other wants 
of the family are few indeed. There is 
something absolutely startling in the con- 
templation of one or two hundred mil- 
lion souls living at this dying rate, but 
such is the condition of uncounted mil- 
lions of our poor race. If the Christian 
missionary carried with him no other gift 
to the vast millions of the non-Christian 
world than the simple knowledge of Christ, 
and of the common Father, he would still 



32 India and Southern Asia. 

give to the people to whom he goes a 
boon which would be worth more to them 
than all the gold and silver and other vast 
treasures of earth. 

It need hardly be said that nothing at 
all equivalent to the American or European 
idea of education was known in India be- 
fore the arrival of the Europeans, and espe- 
cially before the advent of the Christian 
missionary. In the early days of the Eng- 
lish power it did not occur to anyone that 
the people could be educated, or that they 
could ever rise above the low level in which 
they were found. The first missionaries 
not only suggested the possibility of a 
newer and higher ideal, but demonstrated 
the practicability of the same. It has now 
become abundantly evident that the people 
of India are capable of receiving an edu- 
cation of the highest quality, and that 
under favorable circumstances they will 
be able to compete successfully with Eu- 
ropeans of any and every class. They are 
not lacking in brain-power, and wherever 
an opportunity is afforded them, they make 
good progress and acquit themselves ad- 
mirably. 



The People. 33 

The people of India are conservatives 
of the conservatives. In this respect they 
are Hke all Asiatics except the Japanese. 
They like the old because it is old, and 
shun the new because it is new. This pe- 
culiarity, of course, stands in the way of 
all progress, and is especially unfavorable 
to missionary success. But, on the other 
hand, this conservatism is not without its 
compensations. A willingness to seek 
change for its own sake is not a good omen 
of progress. There is a certain danger in 
attempting too much with newly enfran- 
chised people, and in the long run it will 
very probably be found that by avoiding 
both extremes the missionaries have suc- 
ceeded in finding a safe mean. 

The people of India are for the most part 
a much more temperate people than the 
majority of Europeans. Some of the 
castes abstain almost wholly from intoxi- 
cants of all kinds, and it is a painful but 
true confession to make that intemperance 
spreads most rapidly among those people 
who are brought closely into contact with 
Europeans. In recent years attention has 
been called to the peril in which the young 

3 



34 India and Southern Asia. 

are placed by bringing them up in full 
sight of liquor shops and drinking habits 
to which their forefathers had been com- 
plete strangers. The whole missionary 
body has taken up an attitude of unquali' 
fied hostility to the vice of intemperance, 
not so much for the purpose of reforming 
the people as of saving them from the need 
of a future reformation. 

The opium habit has gained a hold upon 
some classes, but has by no means become 
a common vice among the people at large, 
and since the late pronounced stand taken 
against the traffic by the English Govern- 
ment, it is confidently hoped that an effec- 
tive check can be administered to the fur- 
ther spread of this blighting evil. In all 
their efforts to promote moral reforms 
among the people, the missionaries are 
heartily supported by the leaders of native 
society. 

The intellectual status of the Indian peo- 
ple is higher than is generally supposed by 
Europeans or Americans. In ability to ac- 
quire knowledge the youth of the country 
are quite the equals of the average Euro- 
pean youths. The people of Bengal, who 



The People. 35 

are commonly regarded as physically weak 
and lacking in courage, take high rank in 
school and college, when permitted to com- 
pete for prizes with Europeans. A young 
man in Calcutta when undergoing an ex- 
amination in the medical course, was found 
to be able to repeat the whole text book 
from memory. In like manner many young 
Bengalis show a remarkable proficiency in 
mathematics. The Tamil people — who 
dwell in the south, are said to have the 
best as well as the most extensive litera- 
ture of any of the Indian races. But these 
special cases of proficiency must not be 
accepted as indications that the people 
dwelling in other sections of the Empire 
are lacking in mental power. As intimated 
above, the people of all the Indian races 
are more highly gifted intellectually than 
is supposed in Europe and America, and 
doubtless in the future will be abundantly 
able to hold their own in the severe com- 
petition which seems to await the nations 
of our world, when all unnatural barriers 
are broken down, and all the nations of 
our earth *'flow together." 

The women of India share the disabili- 



/ 



i\ 



36 India and Southern Asia. 

ties of their sex in all Asiatic countries in 
pretty full measure, and have done so since 
a very early age. Polygamy is common but 
by no means universal. In making mar- 
riage engagements no thought of consult- 
ing the young people ever occurs to any- 
one, and strangely enough in most cases 
the selection made by the parents seem to 
be satisfactory to the parties concerned. 
The enforced widowhood observed among 
the Hindus is a source of no little trouble, 
and is one of the worst features of the 
Hindu system. All who can afford it, se- 
clude their females from the gaze of stran- 
gers, but at various points both the Hindus 
and Mohammedans are breaking through 
this restriction. In Calcutta, Madras and 
Bombay, and to a less extent in Lucknow 
and other cities of the interior, intelligent 
natives are sending their daughters to 
school, and in a large measure ignoring the 
demands of caste. Women and girls of 
the poorer classes work in the fields, and 
are seen in large numbers among the labor- 
ers who repair the public roads. They are 
used also as burden bearers, and this part 
of their work seems the most grievous, 



The People. 37 

because their loads are almost exclusively 
carried on their heads. Womanhood is at 
a discount in all the Oriental world and 
has been since time immemorial. India 
has simply followed the common proces- 
sion. The ancient Hebrews excelled other 
Oriental people in the privileges which they 
accorded to their women, but the Moham- 
medans from the first have adopted wrong 
views, and in India have done nothing to 
elevate the status of the sex. But a bet- 
ter day has dawned, and abeady some 
splendid women have been raised up tinder 
the fostering spirit of Christian missions. 

The barbarous cruelty of the Indian 
suttee — the custom of burning widows on 
the funeral pyre of their dead husbands, — 
has only ceased because English law has 
suppressed it. In very recent years in- 
stances of this revolting crime have been 
reported, and the participants punished, 
and there can be no doubt that in some 
sections of the Empire, a rapid increase of 
such instances would be seen if the strong 
ar^^"^ sf authority were withdrawn. 



I CHAPTER V. 

The R:e:i,igions. 

India is somewhat famous for its relig- 
ions, having developed the two great 
systems known as Buddhism and Hindu- 
ism, and meanwhile has provided the finest 
field for the active propagation of Mo- 
I hammedanism to be found anywhere on 

I the globe. The people of India, including 

I \ all races and tribes, seem to have a pecu- 

liar religious temperament, and blank in- 
fidelity has never found a congenial soil 
in any part of the land. The scantiest rec- 
ords of the earliest ages indicate the pres- 
ence of blind devotion to various forms of 
polytheism on the part of many, and of 
more intelligent nature worship on the part 
of the few more cultured persons. 

The first Aryan invaders found a most 
degraded form of worship among the peo- 
ple of the land. Their objects of venera- 
tion and worship included snakes, mon- 
38 



The Religions. 39 

keys, elephants, crocodiles and other 
creatures. Apparently they were attracted 
by the size and strength of the animal, or 
by its ferocity. Careful observers have 
often noted the fact that in much of the 
worship of people, especially of those of 
little cultivation, the grotesque element 
seems always to have a special attraction. 
No connected or intelligent idea of the 
religious beliefs of those early people can 
be obtained because of the scarcity of the 
records concerning them, but references 
to them and their customs are found in the 
writings of the early Aryans, giving us a 
general impression of their religion and 
degree of cultivation. 

The early Aryans entered India at a 
period long before the rice of Buddhism, 
which is generally conceded to have taken 
place about six centuries before our era, 
and if this opinion is correct, it follows that 
the early Aryan writers must have flour- 
ished at a far earlier date. By all accounts 
they were men of simple but intelligent 
habits and ideals, and with a fair amount of 
culture. They were very much unlike the 
more superstitious and ignoble people who 



40 India and Southern Asia. 

represented the descendants of these first 
Aryans at the time of the rise of Buddhism. 

The precise manner in which Brahman- 
ism took its rise is not clearly known. It 
would seem, however, that there was a dis- 
tinct and rapid decline in the character of 
the Aryan leaders. The order of Brah- 
mans had no existence at the outset, but 
seems to have grown up by a gradual 
process, and, like priests in every age, these 
men learned the secrets of using religious 
veneration and authority as a means for 
their personal promotion. Perhaps the 
worst of all tyrannies is that of spiritual 
masters, and the success which the Brah- 
mans achieved in their efforts to usurp 
authority has become well-known through- 
out the globe. 

It is not probable that these men de- 
liberately constructed the system which af- 
terwards served so well to further their 
own interests and strengthen their author- 
ity, but like similar movements in all ages 
it was the result of influences some of 
which seemed harmless enough at the time. 
The various steps by which the earliest 
Aryan society was reorganized has been a 



The Religions. 41 

subject of much interesting study, espe- 
cially since the writings of Max Miiller 
were published forty odd years ago. Very 
naturally many writers as well as hosts of 
readers have been led into the mistaken 
notion that the simple nature worship of 
the early Aryans was one and the same in 
origin, and in most details, with the per- 
fected system afterward known as Hindu- 
ism. This, however, is by no means clear. 
It is more probable that many centuries 
elapsed before modern Hinduism assumed 
the phases which it bore when the first 
Europeans came to the country. It need 
hardly be said that nothing could be more 
unlike the simple ideals cherished by the 
early Aryans in the Northwest, than the 
Hinduism which William Carey knew on 
the banks of the Hughli, or that Hinduism 
which the earliest Christian missionaries 
encountered when they landed in South 
India. The early Aryans were not poly- 
theists, nor does it seem that they wor- 
shiped images of any kind. They rever- 
enced the sun and moon, the mountains and 
rivers, and, of course, the mighty ocean. 
They ascribed a duty or office to each of 



42 India and Southern Asia. 

the great objects of nature. It does not 
appear that they adopted any special ob- 
servances such as the worship of idols, or 
of serpents or of living creatures of any 
kind. In other words, there was a dis- 
tinctly downward step taken by those who 
succeeded in transforming the simple faith 
of the Aryans into the somewhat repulsive 
cult known to-day as Hinduism. 

In order to understand the character of 
Hinduism as it practically exists in India 
at the present time, the student must al- 
ways bear in mind that the caste system 
forms an important — and it might almost 
be said a predominant — feature of the 
Hindu religion. It is frequently said by 
missionaries in reply to questions from 
strangers in the country, that the caste 
system is not a feature of the Hindu re- 
ligion, though in practical life it is Hindu- 
ism itself. Nobody could be included 
Vv^ithin the pale of the religion who did not 
believe in and accept caste and pay scru- 
pulous regard to all its rules. The out- 
caste is very much more than merely a 
person excluded from the bounds of polite 
society. In many respects he is treated as 



The Religions. 43 

a dead man. His punishment is not only 
bitter, but cruel. Caste is the chief bond 
which holds Hindu society together at the 
present time. Its influence permeates every 
section of society, and it is rigidly opposed 
to the ingress of all reforming or progres- 
sive agencies which may be brought into 
the country from the outer world. 

But the situation is by no means as hope- 
less as the above statement of the case 
might indicate. Beyond all questions the 
bonds of caste have grown steadily weaker 
during the past generation. Very many of 
the more intelligent people of the land 
freely admit that the system rests like a 
great blight on the nation. The advance 
of education, of course, weakens its bonds, 
while the increasing intercourse of India 
with the outer nations of the earth is con- 
stantly felt in aid of every progressive en- 
terprise. The shadow of the system may 
linger for many centuries, but its power is 
rapidly giving way, and the multitudes who 
belong to the lower grades of society are 
learning to breathe more easily than their 
ancestors were ever able to do. 

As was mentioned on a preceding page, 



44 India and Southern Asia. 

Buddhism took its rise five or six centu- 
ries before the beginning of our era. Its 
founder was a notable man living in a 
part of the province now known as Oudh, 
and he is known to students by the various 
names of Gautama, Buddha, and Sakya 
Muni. By all accounts it would seem to 
be fairly well settled that he was an honest 
and able reformer. His methods doubt- 
less seem strange to Western students, but 
all Oriental leaders of his class were en- 
tirely unlike the ideals formed by 
Europeans or Americans who make their 
observations from entirely modern points 
of view. Much uncertainty exists as to 
actual facts concerning the events of his 
life, but for some reason and in some way 
he succeeded in making an extraordinary 
impression upon all classes throughout the 
borders of the land. As a matter of fact 
the Brahmans opposed him bitterly and 
desperately, but it would seem, that they 
had become intolerable to the common peo- 
ple on account of their tyranny, and the 
reformer touched a deeply popular chord 
when he preached against them and their 
extortionate ways. He probably deserves 



The Religions. 45 

all the praise that modern writers give him, 
but he did not prove fully equal to the great 
occasion which called him forth. He was 
supported by some of the reigning princes 
of the time, and he alone of all India's great 
religious leaders succeeded in making his 
influence to be felt in regions beyond the 
confines of his own land. Buddhist mis- 
sionaries crossed over to Ceylon and 
preached successfully there, and, as all the 
world knows, some missionaries penetrated 
into Tibet and China and met with extraor- 
dinary successes there. In short, Bud- 
dhism took its place as one of the great re- 
ligions of mankind, and although it ulti- 
mately failed to hold the ground it gained, 
yet the history of the movement will al- 
ways furnish a fascinating story for the 
student. 

An amazing discovery was made by a 
French traveler named Hue who visited 
Tibet nearly two generations ago. The 
traveler was a loyal Roman Catholic, and 
was exceedingly surprised to find that in 
many points the ritual which the Buddhists 
of Tibet observed, followed precisely the 
same routine which the Roman Catholics 



46 India and Southern Asia. 

observe in many of their services to-day. 
Attention was called to this subject by 
many writers, but up to the present time 
the assertions made by M. Hue have not 
been denied or challenged. A statement 
of the facts was published at Rome a dozen 
years ago by Bishop Burt, but there, as 
elsewhere, the Roman Catholic authorities 
declined to notice it. Stranger still, it was 
affirmed by the late Sir William Hunter, 
the leading historian of India, that the 
founder of Buddhism was actually canon- 
ized at Rome by one of the Popes of a past 
generation, and this statement, too, has 
failed to meet with any contradiction on 
the part of a Roman Catholic authority. 

Much to the regret of students of Indian 
history, very little can be learned concern- 
ing the cause and nature of the decline of 
Buddhism throughout the country. The 
process, whatever it may have been, seems 
to have been very quiet and to have at- 
tracted but little attention. No doubt the 
movement was extremel}^ slow, and this 
will probably account for the fact that no 
startling incidents such as great battles, 
changes of dynasties, or other important 



The Religions. 47 

political events accompanied the movement. 
Very possibly it was brought about by the 
agency of those Indian princes who suc- 
ceeded the ones who had favored the move- 
ments in its earliest stages. It is not diffi- 
cult to understand how such a change 
might have taken place with comparatively 
little observation. The Buddhists were 
warlike enough at some periods of their 
rule, but this would seem to have been the 
exception with them. Their opponents, on 
the other hand, were thoroughly organized, 
full of bitter enmity, eager to regain their 
lost ground, and selfishly aware that their 
personal interests were at stake on the 
issue. It seems exceedingly unfortunate 
that so promising a movement should have 
been so completely overthrown and even 
all traces of it removed, but no doubt if 
all the facts could be brought to light it 
would become clearly apparent that Bud- 
dhism at its best was not the system which 
Providence designed for the permanent 
deliverance of Ind;a from tyranny and 
misrule, or for the upbuilding of all South- 
ern Asia into an empire mighty enough to 
be worthy of the name, and capable of 



48 India and Southern Asia. 

proving a blessing to its own people, and 
in a large measure to the whole Asiatic 
world. 

To give a complete sketch of the popular 
worship of the present day would lead to a 
repetition of some previous paragraphs, but 
let it suffice to say that the Hindu utterly 
denies that he worships the visible object 
as such, but insists that it is God in the 
idol. At this point their pantheistic notions 
come to their help. The first Hindu whom 
the writer ever questioned on the subject 
was standing in front of his own little tem- 
ple in full view of a hideous idol within. 
\ When asked why he worshiped such an 

object he replied that his views and mine 
were identical, but that as God was every- 
where he was, of course, in the idol. Popu- 
lar pantheism had taken full possession of 
his mind, and yet he was quite unwilling 
to join in the worship of the one omni- 
present God unless the intervening object 
set apart for that purpose served to con- 
centrate his thoughts and aid his attempts 
at devotion. In one form or another 
through the long course of years which 
have passed, the writer has heard the soph- 



The Religions. 49 

istical statement repeated hundreds and 
hundreds of times. It ought not to con- 
fuse the reasoning of a child, but as a mat- 
ter of fact it serves to satisfy the minds of 
many milHons. 

The ordinary mode of worship of a 
Hindu is simple enough. He goes to the 
little temple nearest his home, or perhaps 
to the small shrine enclosing some idol, 
and presents his offering, such as it may 
be — a flower or a little meal, a small coin 
or some other article of slight value; he 
next bows or prostrates himself before the 
idol, then rises and retires. Possibly some 
Brahman attendant may sprinkle a little 
water on him, but in most cases the wor- 
ship is complete when the above slight form 
of service has been carried out. In no 
case, however, is there any prayer offered. 
In some instances the service may be more 
elaborate, and the devotee may repeat some 
sacred words of devout adoration, but in 
no case is there any prayer. It is difficult 
to make Christians in America understand 
this. Prayer, in the Christian sense of the 
word, is distinctly a Christian exercise. 
Prayer is talking with God, Many Chris- 

4 



so India and Southern Asia. 

tians fail to comprehend this definition, 
and we surely should not wonder that the 
Hindus wholly fail to comprehend it. The 
tendency to drift into cold formality when 
engaging in the worship of God, seems to 
be inherent in human nature, and can 
therefore by no means be put down either 
to the credit or discredit of any particular 
race. 

Hinduism as a system is undoubtedly 
losing ground to-day. Many marked indi- 
cations of decay have been noted by close 
students of the system, but it is too soon 
for anyone to assume that it is in a mori- 
bund state. It is still the religion of nearly 
two hundred million people, vast multi- 
tudes of whom are devout adherents to 
their faith. Though most people believe 
it is waning, it still confronts the mission- 
ary and the reformer at every step. At 
some points reforms may be noticed, while 
at others heresies of many kinds are dis- 
turbing the surface of portions of society. 
Like the almost endless variations of calm 
and storm in the ocean, so the great mass 
of Hindu humanity is losing ground at 
3ome points, is disturbed by reform move- 



The Religions. 51 

ments at others, is threatened by permanent 
defeat at still other points, and yet those 
who are most hopeful for the future must 
learn to wait patiently until the various 
agencies now at v/ork produce results 
deeper and more widespread than any 
which have yet been witnessed. 

Several reform movements among the 
Hindus have attracted much attention dur- 
ing the past thirty or forty years. The 
most prominent of these is that known as 
the Brahmo-Samaj, founded originally by 
Ram Mohan Roy, but best known by its 
greatest leader, Keshub Chunder Sen. 
This gentleman was an eloquent speaker 
both in English and his native tongue, and 
in character possessed many qualities 
which belong to the reformer. At times he 
seemed to approach very near to an open 
avowal of the Christian faith, but his 
death at an early age disappointed the hopes 
of his friends, while dissensions in the 
ranks of his followers caused a severe 
check to the development of the move- 
ment. 

A somewhat similar movement, though 
on a far smaller scale, has occurred in 



52 India and Southern Asia. 

Bombay, while still a third movement pop- 
ularly known as the Arya-Somaj, has at- 
tracted much attention in North India. It 
does not seem possible, however, that re- 
form movements which stop short of a full 
and complete acceptance of Christianity 
will ever secure a strong grasp on the peo- 
ple of the country, or lead to permanent 
improvement. 

It remains only to notice Mohammedan- 
ism among the great religious powers 
recognized at the present time in India. 
This violent and intolerant form of faith 
entered India in the wake of conquering 
armies in the eleventh century. No doubt 
the invaders of that day were devout fol- 
lowers of the Arabian Prophet, and, as a 
rule, they carried with them religious lead- 
ers who were reserved expressly for the 
work of teaching and otherwise directing 
the multitudes who were induced either by 
fear or hope of reward or preferment to 
accept the new faith which was thus sum- 
marily thrust upon them. The Hindus, as 
is well known, made a stout and even des- 
perate resistance to the invaders, but for 
the most part in vain. Various artifices 
were employed to induce the people to 



The Religions. 53 

accept the new faith, especially that of 
offering employment to those classes who 
could best serve the purposes of the Tartar 
invaders. Thus the work went on, making 
steady progress, until Baber, the first 
Moghul emperor, laid the foundations of 
a power which in the time of Akhbar at- 
tained a position of power and glory which 
made it renowned the world over. At that 
period it seemed safe to assume that the 
Mohammedans could meet with no check 
until all Asia should be overrun with their 
victorious armies, but from the very first 
the Moghul dynasty revealed elements of 
weakness which at a comparatively early 
day led to its overthrow, and with this 
fall of the imperial power the aggressive 
faith of Islam seemed to lose much of its 
vitality. In more recent years a movement 
sometimes spoken of as a revival of Mo- 
hammedanism has been at work in some 
parts of North India. In remote country 
districts also, a steady work of proselyt- 
ing is going on among the ignorant and 
wretchedly poor peasantry especially in the 
more backward rural districts of Bengal. 
On the other hand, conversions to the ranks 
of Christianity from the follov/ers of Islam, 



54 India and Southern Asia. 

although not numerous, are yet slowly in- 
creasing, and some eminent preachers have 
been received from their ranks, especially 
in North India. 

Before dismissing the subject of relig- 
ion it may be well to call attention to the 
number and extraordinary character of the 
various forms of asceticism which prevail 
among the people. The ascetics themselves 
are objects of devout veneration on the 
part of most devout Hindus, and they in 
turn adopt their mode of life and practice 
their austerities from religious motives. 
These motives are manifold and often dif- 
ficult to understand, but in all cases seem 
to be more or less connected with relig- 
ious considerations. All the world has 
heard of the men who hold up their arm, 
or in some cases both arms, until the joints 
become rigid, and the muscles shrunken 
beyond all hope of recovery. Men of this 
type are not often met at the present time, 
but when they appear devout Hindus offer 
them tokens of veneration, and sometimes 
prostrate themselves at full length at their 
feet. 

But all men of this class are by no 
means honest or sincere. Many are im- 



The Religions. 55 

posters and thoroughly bad men. But no. 
degree of badness seems to deprive them of 
the veneration of the multitude, or to sug- 
gest any question concerning the merit or 
demerit of the whole system of pious men- 
dicancy. It is true that among the lower 
and more ignorant classes this kind of life 
is frequently given up for a time and some- 
times resumed again, but this does not of- 
ten occur in cases where a long course of 
initiation has been followed, and where a 
devotee has reached a stage where his 
reputation for sanctity has a practical value 
to its possessor. 

The worship of religious devotees seems 
to have a strong fascination or drawing of 
some kind in the minds of the people, and 
the practice is so common that it may be 
fairly placed in the list of religious be- 
liefs, or forms of worship, known and rec- 
ognized among the Indian people. It need 
hardly be added that the practice is de- 
grading and misleading on the part of the 
worshipers, and utterly ruinous to recti- 
tude of character on the part of the 
devotees. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Missionary Work. 

For a hundred years India has been 
known as the chief mission field of the 
world. A little more than a century ago 
almost the entire world was closed against 
the missionary. The few people who were 
accessible to him, such as the inhabitants 
of lonely islands in distant seas, and the 
scattered tribes of American Indians, did 
not give any promise of success on a scale 
which would impress the world. God's 
call to the Churches began to be recognized 
here and there, but not by any means gen- 
erally, until it became manifest that the 
settlements of the English in Bengal were 
to be permanent, and that the expansion 
of their authority was likely to continue at 
least for many years. When in addition 
to this fact, it also became evident that 
missionary work would be tolerated, if not 
actively protected, leading Christians in all 
56 



Missionary Work. 57 

Protestant lands quickly perceived that 
God's hand was directing the movements of 
the period in such a way as to make mis- 
sionary work possible on a wider scale 
than had ever been seen before. This led 
to the opening of the period of Carey and 
Heber, of Judson and Newell, of Coke and 
Duflf, and the long list of noble men and 
women who bore aloft the missionary ban- 
ner during the early years of the last cen- 
tury. 

At the beginning of the century many 
fields attracted attention, and men of cour- 
age and devotion went forth to Africa and 
Greenland, and to lonely isles of the sea, 
but before long it became evident that the 
time had not fully come for a world-wide 
crusade, and that the first great advance 
would have to be concentrated on the vast 
field in Southern Asia which God was so 
strangely opening to his servants under 
the Protestant flags of England, Denmark 
and Holland. To this field nearly all the 
Churches of the Protestant world have been 
sending their messengers, especially in re- 
cent years, and although China may before 
very long take precedence among all the 



58 India and Southern Asia. 

great mission fields of the world, yet for 
the present India, with a Christian govern- 
ment, with full religious liberty, and free 
access to every part of the Empire, must 
inevitably continue to maintain her position 
in the van of the united missionary host 
of our world. In view of this impending 
responsibility every disciple of our common 
Master should take pains to understand the 
task which God is setting before his peo- 
ple. Various questions have already sug- 
gested themselves to the reader such as 
these: What constitutes missionary labor? 
Does it consist of preaching alone, or of 
teaching also? Does teaching consist of 
instruction given in schools, or does it in- 
clude industrial training? What about 
theological instruction? About literature? 
Do the people need to be taught the ele- 
ments of modern civilization? How is a 
literature to be created ? What about med- 
ical instruction? In short, many questions 
of this kind present themselves, and other 
questions will doubtless arise as the work 
advances. 

All parties agree that preaching should 
be the chief agency of the missionary, but 



Missionary Work. 59 

the term '^preaching" must be taken in a 
very broad sense in a modern mission field. 
The formal services with which people are 
familiar in Christian lands are simply im- 
possible among half-taught people in a 
heathen land. It is thought by not a few 
who have given attention to the subject, 
that the missionaries in India and the 
Orient generally have valued the style 
which prevails in the Western world too 
highly. We should all remember that the 
preaching of our Savior affords a better 
pattern than that with which the world — 
and especially the Western world — has 
been familiar since the days of Whitefield 
and Wesley in England, and of Finney and 
Edwards in America. We forget that our 
Savior Himself was an Oriental preacher. 
His style of discourse was supremely 
lofty, and withal wonderfully simple. His 
two most memorable discourses were deliv- 
ered while He was seated on the ground. 
Thus far, the native preachers of India 
have too closely followed the style of their 
missionary leaders, but here and there a 
marked tendency to return to Oriental 
methods has attracted notice. The wayside 



60 India and Southern Asia. 

teachings of our Savior are worthy of 
far more attention than they have received. 
Perhaps the weakest point in our Western 
usage is the notion that to be able to give a 
discourse of any importance, a somewhat 
large audience is necessary. This unfor- 
tunate notion is sometimes painfully illus- 
trated in the homeland, where a preacher 
meeting a small congregation is apt to leave 
out portions of his sermon, assuming that 
a mere handful of hearei:s do not merit as 
full a discussion as a larger audience. An 
Indian missionary has called attention to 
the fact that many converts are won in 
village communities by simple men seated 
under trees, or in some place of village 
resort, and conversing in an informal man- 
ner with friends and neighbors gathered 
around them. Informal conversation car- 
ried on by a man who recognizes his re- 
sponsibility as one speaking in the name of 
his Master, must ever prove a very effi- 
cient means of reaching the hearts and 
minds of the masses of the people of the 
East. 

Teaching as well as preaching is an es- 
sential part of missionary work, and has 



Missionary Work. 61 

been since the time of William Carey. It 
is not necessary, however, to establish a 
school in order to teach pupils the rudi- 
ments of religious knowledge. The chief 
object is to secure the attention and train- 
ing of the young, at an age when their 
minds can be impressed most effectively. 
Nearly all Indian missionaries have to a 
greater or less extent adopted a policy of 
maintaining mission schools. Though the 
wisdom of this policy has repeatedly been 
challenged, yet no common policy has been 
reached. Perhaps at the present time the 
majority have either already adopted, or 
wish to adopt, the policy of educating the 
Christian youths in preference to all others, 
but also to admit non-Christian children 
if they wish to enter on the same terms as 
the Christians. It is probable that in the 
early future the Christian community will 
increase to such an extent that the ques- 
tion will settle itself. In other words, there 
will be so many Christians thronging the 
schools that no room will be found- for 
others. 

Another phase of the educational ques- 
tion is that of the rival claims of primary 



62 India and Southern Asia. 

and higher education. Some missionaries 
of experience advocate the poHcy of pro- 
viding primary schools alone, while others 
think that the ultimate benefit of a Chris- 
tian education upon a whole community 
will be greater if fewer students are edu- 
cated, but these few thoroughly prepared 
for wide influence in later life. Much may 
be said on each side of the question, but 
it is undoubtedly true that the few Chris- 
tians who have thus far risen to prominence 
in the land are exerting a very marked influ- 
ence for good among the natives, and are 
doing very much indeed to commend the 
Christian religion to their countrymen, and 
must prove a very great blessing to all 
classes. 

Theological schools have been brought 
forward in recent years as an agency de- 
serving the most cordial support of the 
different missionary societies, and are much 
needed, especially in view of the rapid 
growth of the Christian community. This 
term, however, is one which requires defi- 
nition. It may certainly be doubted whether 
theological schools formed on the some- 
what rigid pattern of similar institutions 



Missionary Work. 63 

in England and America can supply the 
kind of training which is needed by Orien- 
tal men and women. The tendency men- 
tioned above of desiring to follow very 
closely in the footsteps of the foreign mis- 
sionaries is a natural one, and in view of 
the high respect which the average native 
of India feels for the foreign teacher, it 
seems to become almost inevitable. Here 
and there institutions of high grade might 
be of use, but they should in every case 
be conducted in careful accordance with 
a determination not to follow foreign ideals 
too closely. 

The reader in America can hardly con- 
ceive — much less understand — the situation 
in which a thousand, or perhaps several 
thousand, simple villagers are suddenly 
brought within the pale of the Christian 
Church. Their religious ideals are most 
elementary. Their very instincts 'prompt 
them to follow closely the examples within 
their reach, and hence their teachers oc- 
cupy a position of supreme importance. 
They can be very easily misled, and hence 
all possible care should be taken to famil- 
iarize them with the leading truths of the 



64 India and Southern Asia. 

Christian faith, and to avoid all questions 
which are apt to raise doubts in their 
minds, or suggest problems which the in- 
tellects can not fathom. 

In recent years much attention has 
been given to the subject of industrial 
training for young Christians in India. 
The need of such training can be seen at 
a glance, but when the practical question 
of undertaking the task comes up, it is 
quickly discovered that it is beset with dif- 
ficulties. Work of all kinds is so extremely 
cheap in India, that at best it is quite dif- 
ficult to compete in the general market, 
even though the products of the workshop 
may be better than those in general use. 
In order to secure purchasers the articles 
should not only be of higher value, but 
also be furnished at a rate which in Amer- 
ica would seem merely nominal. In or- 
phanages, and special schools organized 
for the purpose, something has been done, 
and many earnest men and women are 
studying the subject, but it is too soon yet 
to speak with confidence of the practical 
value of such enterprises. In God's good 
time some way out will be found from the 



Missionary Work. 65 

difficulties which just now seem to be insep- 
arable from the task. The subject is worthy 
of much serious thought, but in the lim- 
ited pages of this booklet more space can 
not be afforded it. 

At an early day the idea was suggested 
to friends of missions that medical skill 
might be used to unlock the doors which 
so often are closed against the foreign mis- 
sionary. Some of the very first mission- 
aries were medical men. In a general way 
it might be said that in no case does this 
kind of service absolutely fail, though like 
many other good things it has its limita- 
tions. A medical man can not do satisfac- 
tory work unless he devotes his entire time 
to his calling. Missionaries of this class 
are sometimes heard to express their re- 
gret that they ever studied medicine, and 
explain that the "doctor invariably swal- 
lows up the missionary," and that while 
their medical practice enables them to enter 
closed doors, it also adds to their respon- 
sibilities, and keeps them from the spirit- 
ual work which their hearts prompt them 
to undertake. Perhaps it would be a wise 
policy for every medical missionary to have 

5 



66 India and Southern Asia. 

a lay colleague who could follow up the 
spiritual openings which occur, and thus 
relieve his medical brother from his em- 
barrassment. 

In the case of lady doctors the situation 
is somewhat different. These valued work- 
ers have fewer claims apart from the spe- 
cific tasks connected with their profession. 
They are not expected to preach or take 
charge of schools, although in a very real 
sense they may be said to perform pastoral 
duties among those women who are not 
accessible to the male missionary. Medical 
women of this class have certainly accom- • 
plished much good, and have been led out 
into broader fields than those of which they 
dreamed before going to the mission field. 
An illustration of this occurs in the case 
of Miss Clara A. Swain, M. D., the first 
medical lady to enter a foreign missionary 
field. Dr. Swain was sent out to India in 
1870 by the newly organized Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society. It seems almost 
incredible that at so late a day she became 
the pioneer of a movement which now 
spreads to some extent all over the heathen 
world. Many doubted the wisdom of the 



Missionary Work. 67 

experiment at the time — for it was an ex- 
periment — but her success surpassed all ex- 
pectations. She was not only received with 
kindness, but in some cases with enthusi- 
asm, and lived to become the pioneer not 
only of women's medical practice in India, 
but of medical instruction to the women 
of the soil, and in a few years the Govern- 
ment of India became so interested in the 
movement, and so well satisfied with the 
success which had attended it, that an order 
was issued opening the great medical col- 
leges of the Empire to men and women on 
equal terms. 

It remains to notice the result of higher 
education among the women and girls of 
India. It was only about the middle of the 
last century that the thought occurred to 
any one that an effort should be made to 
provide at least the elements of education 
for the women of India. A few attempts 
had been made, especially in Calcutta, but 
the utmost that was hoped for was that the 
people might be willing to have their daugh- 
ters educated in the simple elements of a 
primary education. In 1870 Miss Isabella 
Thoburn went out to India with a special 



68 India and Southern Asia. 

conviction that her work was to be chiefly 
the promotion of higher education among 
women and girls. It so happened that Dr. 
Swain and Miss Thoburn went out on the 
same ship, sent out by the same organiza- 
tion, and each was the pioneer of a great 
work. Miss Thoburn's success was com- 
plete, although it took some time to work 
out a visible result. She lived to found the 
first Christian college for women ever 
erected, not only in India, but anywhere 
on Asiatic soil. Other similar institutions 
are following, and the possibilities for a 
woman to secure a higher education are 
now established beyond doubt. 

Very naturally supporters of foreign mis- 
sions in England and America will ask how 
long their support must continue. Will 
the native Churches of India ever reach 
a point at which they will become so inde- 
pendent as to require no further assistance 
from without? What is the present meas- 
ure of their ability to support pastors 
taken from their own class, and living 
among them as pastors do elsewhere? To 
answer this question plainly, there must 
first be a statement made as to the con- 



Missionary Work. 69 

dition of the average Christian community 
in countries Hke India and China. The 
poor people who so largely constitute our 
membership in these lands are more than 
willing to do their whole duty, but most 
missionaries shrink from laying upon them 
any burden which involves even the small- 
est gift of money. A laboring man earns 
five or six cents a day, his wife possibly 
as much more, and children of working 
age also earn a trifle, but the parents are 
not always able to secure steady work. 
Prices fluctuate, and the support for one 
year may not suffice for another; sickness 
and trouble of various kinds may also fall 
to their lot. Yet in many cases the native 
pastor is supported by people whose in- 
come is almost incredibly small. In some 
cases women have been known to cast their 
flimsy ornaments on the collecting plate, 
and also take the rings from their fingers 
and toes for the same purpose. Now and 
then, but very rarely, a lady's ring may be 
found on a collecting plate in an American 
Church, but so far as the spirit of giving 
is concerned, the Indian sister has perhaps 



70 India and Southern Asia. 

the more wilHng spirit of the two. It cer- 
tainly can not be laid to the charge of the 
poor Christians of India that they do not 
possess a willing spirit, when the duty of 
giving is presented to them. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Methodist Missions in India. 

The: Methodists of England promptly 
joined in the movement which followed 
the enterprise of Dr. Carey, and in the 
year 1815 Dr. Thomas Coke and a party 
of young men sailed from England for 
service in Ceylon and South India. Dr. 
Coke had already done service in America 
and the West Indies, and was full of mis- 
sionary spirit, and qualified in many re- 
spects for the leadership of such a move- 
ment as he wished to inaugurate in India, 
but he was in advanced years, and there- 
fore unfitted for the hardships of the mis- 
sionary service of that time. Before reach- 
ing India he was one morning found dead 
in his cabin, and the party of young men 
had to proceed to their field and enter upon 
their work without their leader. They 
planted missions both in Ceylon and on the 
mainland, and were joined from time to 
71 



72 India and Southern Asia. 

time by able and devoted comrades, the 
most prominent of whom was the well- 
known William Arthur, while R. Spence 
Hardy and Daniel Gogerly attained emi- 
nence in the line of Oriental scholarship. 
However, the Wesleyans did not for many 
years extend their work into other parts 
of India, nor did they succeed in achiev- 
ing marked success within the boundaries 
of the fields to which they had been as- 
signed. Their work was thorough, and 
their foundation well laid. 

The American Methodists were very slow 
in entering upon the foreign missionary 
movement, for it was not until the year 
1856 that they sent forth their first mis- 
sionary to India. Their pioneer was the 
well-known Dr. William Butler. He was 
given instructions to establish a compact 
mission field in some part of North India, 
the definite plan of the Missionary Society 
being that of selecting a field large enough 
for twenty-five men only, a number which 
was considered large in that day of small 
things. The field chosen consisted of the 
small province of Rohilkhund, together 
with half of the adjacent province of Oudh, 



Methodist Missions in India. 73 

the whole field being not so large in area 
as the State of Indiana. Reinforcements 
were sent out to the pioneer, and an en- 
couraging beginning was made, but it so 
happened that the great Indian mutiny- 
broke out only a few months after his ar- 
rival, and he was compelled to flee for 
refuge to Naini Tal, in the lower Hima- 
layas. When the worst of the storm was 
over his two colleagues, who had reached 
Calcutta and stayed there during the mu- 
tiny, came up and joined him, and as soon 
as it was considered safe they all repaired 
to their stations at Lucknow and Bareilly. 
Early in 1859 six additional missionaries 
reached the field, and in September the first 
formal "Annual Meeting'' of the Mission 
was held at Lucknow. Twelve mission- 
aries were present, including three English- 
men who had joined Dr. Butler in India, 
and also one native preacher named Joel 
Janvier, who had come to Dr. Butler from 
the American Presbyterians at Allahabad. 
At that stage of missionary progress this 
little band of thirteen workers seemed like 
a vigorous — and in a sense a vast — army. 
The spirit maintained by these men was in 



74 India and Southern Asia. 

some respects remarkable. They talked 
and planned together as if they were al- 
ready sharing a part in a great work. They 
boldly asked the authorities in America to 
organize them into an Annual Conference, 
with all the rights and privileges pertain- 
ing to such a body. They assumed at the 
very outset that they were about to enter 
upon a very great work, and so little did 
they conceal either their hopes or their 
assurance of success, that some friends in 
America thought it prudent to remind them 
that they were as yet living in a* day of 
small things, and were perhaps tempted 
to look too far into the future. It always 
happens when a new mission is founded in 
a country where the people speak a strange 
language and follow a strange religion, 
that much weary delay must occur and 
many discouragements and disappointments 
be endured. Nor did these new mission- 
aries prove an exception to this rule. 
Meanwhile the Civil War broke out at 
home, and for a time it seemed impossible 
for them to remain at their posts, but they 
were so nobly sustained by the Missionary 
Society that they not only held their own 



Methodist Missions in India. 75 

ground, but received reinforcements enough 
to double the number of American mis- 
sionaries on the field before the conclusion 
of the war. 

In the year 1864, to the very great sur- 
prise of many leading men in America, the 
General Conference gave the missionaries 
in India an Annual Conference organiza- 
tion. This was considered a most extraor- 
dinary step at the time, but events have 
proved its wisdom, while the precedent thus 
formed has been followed to great advan- 
tage in the other mission fields of the 
Church. The work moved on, converts 
were gradually gathered around the mis- 
sionaries, native preachers were raised up, 
schools and orphanages established, but al- 
most twenty years elapsed before the in- 
crease of converts began to attract atten- 
tion. It was once remarked by an eminent 
orator that experience was the only lamp 
by which his feet were guided, and this re- 
mark holds true to a very great extent in 
foreign missions. But many missionaries 
have no experience by which their feet 
may be guided except their own ; they are 
working under new conditions, they are 



76 India and Southern Asia. 

walking in untrodden paths, and thus, of 
course, are obHged to become their own 
teachers in acquiring many of the most 
important lessons of life. 

Some movements during the years 1874-5 
gave rise to a conviction on the part of 
some leading missionaries that God had 
a wider work for the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in India than had been contem- 
plated by the good men who first laid out 
plans for the work. It was the universal 
custom for all the missionary societies then 
operating in India to lay down fixed boun- 
daries for their fields, and it was under- 
stood that all missionaries would respect 
these boundary lines, at least to a reason- 
able extent. Here and there when an effort 
had sometimes been made to change some 
boundary lines a little friction had been re- 
ported, sometimes on the part of one mis- 
sion and again on the part of another, but 
the fact that such an uncertainty existed 
made it difficult for our missionaries to act 
freely, and some even went so far as to 
object to any extension of boundary lines 
whatever. The rule, however, had never 
been enforced with reference to work 



Methodist Missions in India. 77 

among Europeans in the country, and as a 
large number of these people were found 
scattered all over the Empire, our mission- 
aries, following the precedents and instinct 
which had always characterized their breth- 
ren in all parts of the globe, had gone freely 
to minister to all persons who spoke the 
English language, and who were not other- 
wise supplied with gospel preaching. God 
blessed these efforts, and calls from various 
places began to reach the missionaries. In 
the meantime, in the providence of God 
William Taylor reached India on one of 
his great tours, and, not knowing any na- 
tive language, very naturally began to 
preach wherever he went in English. God 
blessed the Word from his lips, and many 
were converted. In some places Methodist 
Churches were organized, and almost be- 
fore they knew it the missionaries found 
that their Church was represented by zeal- 
ous Christian believers in Western and 
Southern India, as well as in Bengal. It 
seemed unreasonable to hold aloof from 
these Churches, especially as they asked to 
be incorporated in the common body, and 
eagerly sought to be provided with the 



78 India and Southern Asia. 

oversight on which all Methodist Churches 
depend. In this unlooked for way our little 
work in Rohilkhund and Oudh expanded 
until it reached not only all parts of the 
great Indian Empire, but also extended its 
influence far down the Malay Peninsula 
to the great city of Singapore. 

This vast extension of our work only 
served to deepen the conviction of our 
leaders in India that an organization 
adapted to the new work should be per- 
fected so as to meet all requirements in 
cases of emergency. Experience had amply 
proved that it was altogether impossible to 
refer all questions to parties living on the 
other side of the globe. Appeals which 
were made were sometimes neglected, some- 
times misunderstood, and at best seldom 
met with satisfactory treatment. A repre- 
sentative body of missionaries met at Alla- 
habad in 1879, ^^d asked the General Con- 
ference to authorize the organization of a 
Central Conference, having jurisdiction 
over all general interests in India. This 
request was a bold one, and created no 
little disquiet in the minds of many lead- 
ing men at home. When first presented to 



Methodist Missions in India. 79 

the General Conference it failed to receive 
its approval. Many matters had to be ex- 
plained, many objections made and an- 
swered, and not a few changes inserted 
in the proposed plan, but finally in 1884 
the General Conference authorized the or- 
ganization of such a body, to be known as 
the Central Conference in Southern Asia. 
About the year 1888 it began to be no- 
ticed that a new spirit of inquiry was mani- 
festing itself among the large body of peo- 
ple composing what are known as the 
''depressed classes." These people do not 
form a single class or caste, but are divided 
into different castes, or sub-castes, accord- 
ing to the part of the country in which they 
live, and the occupations in which they en- 
gage. Mentally and physically most of 
them compare favorably with those who 
occupy a higher social position, and experi- 
ence has thus far proved that with fair 
opportunities they can rise steadily and 
somewhat rapidly in the social scale. Under 
various names, and subject to various con- 
ditions, an immense proportion of the peo- 
ple of India belong to these depressed 
classes, and it is evident at a glance that 



80 India and Southern Asia. 

India can never become Christian in any 
true sense until the milHons of these lowly 
people are reached and rescued from their 
low estate. 

It was among these people that the new 
spirit of inquiry first appeared, and it soon 
became apparent that it was not only wide- 
spread, but had many signs of permanence. 
Converts multiplied, and inquirers were 
reported from far and near. For the first 
time in the history of the mission baptisms 
began to be numbered by the thousand, and 
so great was the success in some quarters 
that prudent men began to doubt the gen- 
uineness of the work, but as time passed it 
became evident that whatever elements of 
weakness there might be in the movement, 
God's hand was manifestly directing it. 

Perhaps the best result of this move- 
ment was the new spirit which was breathed 
into the native Christians. They seemed to 
be touched with a new inspiration. They 
were moved by what has been called ''the 
instinct of victory." They joyously ac- 
cepted the spirit of self-sacrifice. Many 
of them preached with power. The Amer- 
ican brethren saw the need of a larger staff 



Methodist Missions in India. 81 

of ordained men, and although the Annual 
Conference, held in Bareilly in January, 
1889, rejoiced greatly when ten men stood 
up together and were ordained to the Chris- 
tian ministry, yet only three years later no 
less than fifty-three were ordained at a ses- 
sion of the same Conference, held at the 
same place. It soon became necessary to 
organize a second Conference in Northwest 
India, where the good work spread with 
even greater rapidity and over a wider ter- 
ritory. Later still, a similar movement be- 
gan among the people known as Gujaratis, 
living in the region north of Bombay, where 
many thousands were gathered into the 
Church and many valuable recruits found 
for the Christian ministry. 

But our successful work has been by no 
means confined to the above named regions. 
With the progress of the work it has been 
found necessary to increase the number of 
Conferences from one to nine. One of 
these lies for the most part among the for- 
ests and remote people of Central India. 
One includes the once remote State of 
Burma, the region made famous by the 
labors and sufferings of the Judsons, One 
6 



82 India and Southern Asia. 

embraces the Malay Peninsula, and the 
great tropical islands of Borneo, Java, and 
Sumatra; while still another includes 
within its boundary lines the now famous 
group of islands known as the Philippines. 
The writer of these lines joined the India 
Mission in 1859, ^^ which time the boun- 
daries of the Mission were strictly limited 
to the small section of country in North 
India mentioned on a preceding page. Con- 
verts were received from the first, but in 
such limited numbers that nearly thirty 
years elapsed before the encouraging prog- 
ress of the work in North India began to 
attract notice. From this time forward its 
progress was extremely promising, and a 
new spirit seemed to animate the whole 
Christian community. Questions and criti- 
cisms were heard concerning the sound- 
ness of the conversions reported, but the 
missionaries seldom paused to defend their 
course, which they believed to be a plan 
of God's direction. In the following years 
the progress has not been uniform, but 
when the results are tabulated, and due al- 
lowance made for the fact that all progress 
in heathen lands must necessarily be slow, 



Methodist Missions in India. 83 

the latest statistics are not only satisfac- 
tory, but in some respects surprising. For 
instance in 1859 the number of communi- 
cants, including probationers, was thirteen, 
v/hile to-day they number over 125,000. 
The total Christian community is more than 
175,000, while "other advance movements 
are reported from different points in the 
wide field. Other doors are opening — 
more doors indeed than we can hope to 
enter for many years. Barriers which for 
long years seemed immovable are breaking 
down and disappearing, tokens for good are 
graciously given us day by day, and all the 
workers are full of good cheer and faith 
in the future. 

In this rapid sketch no attempt has been 
made to tell the story of our expansion 
from point to point, until at last our vast 
field is spoken of officially, not as India, 
but as ''Southern Asia." The first advance 
beyond the bounds of India proper was 
into Burma, where our banner was planted 
in the city of Rangoon in the year 1879. 
There, as in so many other places, the 
work was commenced among the Euro- 
peans who had heard of our work in Cal- 



84 India and Southern Asia. 

cutta, and had invited us to come to them. 
Success attended this effort, and in the 
course of a two weeks' stay there a firm 
foundation was laid for the future work 
of our Church in that part of the world. 
Preaching was commenced in three differ- 
ent languages, and property secured, and 
arrangements made for a permanent occu- 
pation of the field. Our work there has 
had its share of the vicissitudes which at- 
tend missionary labors everywhere, but it 
has had a very satisfactory measure of suc- 
cess. A Conference has been organized, 
and work is carried on not only among the 
Indian settlers, but also among the Bur- 
mese themselves, who until very recently 
were considered extremely inaccessible, but 
are now evincing an interest in the work 
which is most encouraging. 

The next advance to the distant city of 
Singapore, was in some respects the most 
singular enterprise undertaken by our 
Church in that part of the globe. The city 
is very nearly two thousand miles distant 
from Calcutta. We had no one to invite 
us there, and our first missionaries were 
obliged to go among complete strangers, 



Methodist Missions in India. 85 

but special tokens of God's favor were soon 
given them, and a foothold secured which 
has expanded into a well organized Annual 
Conference. Bishop Oldham was the pio- 
neer in this movement, and the interesting 
story of his successful movements there in 
building a church and large school has fre- 
quently been told. Singapore is now the 
center of the work done by that Confer- 
ence, which has missionaries or other work- 
ers farther up at Penang, and at several 
points of the Malay Peninsula, as well as 
on the great islands of Borneo, Java, and 
Sumatra. 

But the most striking result of our en- 
trance and occupation of Malaysia has been 
seen in the providential opening of the door 
to the Philippines. When our missionaries 
first went to Singapore they learned that 
all the islands in that vast region were open 
to them except this group. The Spaniards 
had from the first forbidden the entry of 
any missionaries except Roman Catholics, 
and it was well understood everywhere in 
the East that their rule was extremely rigid, 
and would not be relaxed in the slightest 
degree under any circumstances. On this 



86 India and Southern Asia. 

account our missionaries in Singapore felt 
a peculiar interest in the Philippines, and 
from the first some of them prayed daily 
that in some way God would break down 
the barrier of centuries, and throw the 
doors of those beautiful islands open to all 
disciples of our common Master who might 
wish to labor there. This faith was so 
strong that when the second day of May, 
1898, brought the news of Admiral Dewey's 
victory at Manila, their surprise was not 
unmingled with a realization that the long 
continued prayers had been answered. 

The Missionary Society lost no time in 
sending a messenger to investigate the op- 
portunities of opening up work there. The 
story of our entry can not be inserted here, 
but suffice it to say that no mission of our 
Church to Roman Catholics has met with 
a success at all commensurate with that 
achieved in the Philippines in these few 
years. The work is still new, the dangers 
have been many and severe in character, 
but nevertheless the missionaries on the field 
report a Church membership, including pro- 
bationers, of over 17,000, while the body of 
adherents is estimated at a much larger 



Methodist Missions in India. 87 

figure. The people are hungry for the 
Word of truth, and there seems to be no 
limit to the possibilities set before our mis- 
sionaries, provided they can be supported 
vv^ith reinforcements and a moderate appro- 
priation of funds."^ 

To sum up: God has given our people a 
great work to do in Southern Asia. The 
more the situation is studied, the more 
amazing does the progress appear. Our 
missionaries began by preaching in a single 
native language, but they are now preach- 
ing in at least thirty-seven different 
tongues. And yet it must be constantly 
remembered that in this great field, as in 
China and elsewhere, the work is only in 
its beginning. It must finally assume pro- 
portions, the very mention of which now 
would be bewildering. It can not be re- 
peated too often that the project even in 
its simplest terms surpasses in magnitude 
anything of the kind which has ever been 
attempted before, for indeed it embraces 
the human race ! 



*The story of our work in Malaysia, including the 
Philippines, has been written by Bishop Oldham, and will 
soon be published. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Christian India. 

Wii,iv India ever become Christian? 
Some good people doubt it, chiefly because 
of peculiar views of prophecy ; but on the 
other hand, a great multitude of spiritually 
minded Christians confidently affirm their 
belief and expectation that India with her 
teeming millions will in the fullness of 
God's time be given to the Eternal Son for 
His inheritance. To this grand consum- 
mation all things seem to be tending, and 
He with whom nothing is impossible as- 
suredly seems to be preparing the way for 
greater achievements than any seen in past 
ages, and victories are reported which seem 
to portend the final triumph which shall 
give India an inheritance and a name among 
the Christian nations of the earth. When 
India becomes Christian, what will be the 
condition of her people ? Will they remain 
poor, and live constantly on the ragged 
88 

LCFC. 



Christian India. 89 

edge of starvation? Will life continue to 
be one long struggle against grinding pov- 
erty and many forms of injustice and 
wrong? Will they live in mud huts and 
see their children grow up in ignorance, 
and exposed to the blighting influence of 
bad customs and bad associations? 

No, the future of Christian India will be 
unlike her past in many ways. In the first 
place, the nations which fear God and keep 
His commandments do not, and can not, 
continue to live in a state of permanent de- 
pression. An eternal law of God makes 
this impossible. The poverty of the world 
may be traced to sin, but never to right- 
eousness. The good and holy are some- 
times poor to human seeing, as the Master 
Himself was, but there is such a thing as 
having nothing and yet possessing all 
things. Christian India will not be poor 
in the ordinary sense of the word. The ac- 
ceptance of Christ will place them under 
the care of Him who once fed starving mul- 
titudes and who now provides for starving 
nations. 

Christian India will be the home of an 
intelligent people. There is no defect in 



90 India and Southern Asia. 

the Indian brain. So far from it, in fair 
competition the Indian youth contests suc- 
cessfully with the youth of his own age 
from the British Isles, and can compete 
under fair conditions with young men of 
his own age from any country in the world. 
If these youths can do this now in the face 
of the disadvantages under which they have 
grown up, how much more certainly will 
they succeed in that brighter day when they 
are freed from the disabilities which heath- 
enism imposes. 

Christian India will hold an honorable 
place among the nations of the earth. In 
that better day when all nations flow to- 
gether; i. e., mingle and commingle to an 
extent never yet seen, the people of India 
will profit by their wider associations and 
lose some peculiarities which sometimes 
affect strangers unfavorably. But no one 
must too readily assume that all the giving 
must be one-sided — ^that, for instance, Eu- 
rope has as much to give, but needs noth- 
ing for herself in return. Such an assump- 
tion would be a very mistaken one. India, 
and for that matter all the nations of Asia, 
can place Europe under obligations of many 



Christian India. 91 

kinds. What does not Europe owe to Asia? 
For uncounted centuries Europe occupied 
the less favored position, and but for the 
older continent her barbarism might have 
continued for many long and weary cen- 
turies — perhaps to the present day. At this 
late day it does not become any people to 
boast too freely of either their lineage or 
history. 

Speculative thinkers often give them- 
selves needless trouble in wondering what 
the fate of the race will be when the earth 
no longer yields enough food for the people 
living on its surface, but all such fears are 
groundless. Through a long course of 
years new sources of supply have been dis- 
covered as needed, and we may well trust 
that in coming years other sources will be 
found sufficient for every emergency. In 
this connection the experiments of Mr. Bur- 
bank suggest in a most striking manner 
that the one peril which the human race has 
least need to fear, is that of the race perish- 
ing for the want of food. 

Let India be brought to Christ, and her 
future is assured for all the years to come. 
When she takes her place among the Chris- 



92 India and Southern Asia. 



^ 

1 



tian family of nations God will bless her, 
and the eternal laws of nature, as well as ^ 
the laws of grace, will begin to act in her f 
favor, and thus her long and weary struggle 
against the powers of evil will end in a 
glorious release, and a new career of pros- 
perity and peace. 



MAfi 16 190? 



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